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Monday, January 31, 2011

Solomon Islands5019.88, SIBC. Randomly from 1319 to 1440* (sign-off)UTC, Jan 31. Extended schedule. Poor to almost fair in QRN, in Tok Pisin language. Mostly playing pop island songs to interviews, weather. Usual English sign-off at 1438 announcement, followed by national anthem. Best in LSB due to Cuba interference from 5025. Per Sei-ichi Hasegawa's recent reports, Vanuatu has gone to 24 hour broadcasting and The Cross has been reactivated, so the Pacific is finally becoming more active on shortwave.(Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

As noted from my earlier EDXP Newsletter posting, religious shortwave broadcaster Cross Radio via Pohnpei, Micronesia has reactivated, and has been observed on 4755 kHz to the 0934 sign-off. According to their website, Canadian technicians arrived, " last week of January 2011 to work on our transmitters for our shortwave radio." I will post their schedule and additional information, as it becomes available.Gayle VH

The Association for International Broadcasting, the industry association for international TV, radio, mobile and online broadcasting, strongly condemns the closure of the Cairo bureau of Al Jazeera Network and the withdrawal of accreditation to Al Jazeera correspondents in Egypt.

The moves by the Egyptian Ministry of Information, announced on Egyptian TV and by MENA, the official news agency in Egypt, come at a time when the focus of a majority of the world's media is on the continuing unrest in the North African country. The announcement on MENA said: "The information minister [Anas al-Fikki] ordered ... suspension of operations of Al Jazeera, cancelling of its licences and withdrawing accreditation to all its staff as of today."

Al Jazeera Network's Arabic- and English-language services have provided extensive, constant coverage of developments in Egypt since the start of demonstrations across the country, providing news and analysis to viewers in Egypt, across North Africa and the Middle East and to a global audience.

"AIB and its global membership of broadcasters protests strongly at the restrictions placed on Al Jazeera Network in Egypt," says AIB chief executive Simon Spanswick. "The Arabic and English channels reach tens of millions of viewers, including significant numbers of Egyptian expatriates around the world who have come to rely on Al Jazeera for up-to-the-minute coverage of the fast-moving events in Egypt. The move by the authorities in Egypt demonstrates a complete disregard for freedom of expression as well as media freedom in the country. AIB looks forward to the Egyptian authorities swiftly reconsidering the restrictions they have placed on the channel and allowing Al Jazeera and all other media companies to report from the country without hindrance."

The move by the Egyptian authorities follows similar restrictions by other governments around the Middle East on print and broadcast news media preventing them from reporting freely. Despite the restrictions, media outlets find ways of circumventing restrictions thanks to extensive technological developments and it is expected that Al Jazeera Network and other news media will find ways to bring news from Egypt as the crisis continues to audiences both within the country, across the region and throughout the world.(AIB/Simon Spanswick via Rachael Baughn)

Solar Activity Sunspot Cycle 24 has started, but its estimated that it will not peak until year-2015, at the least, and certainly not at the same intensity for previous cycles.

IPS, Sydney, advises that the 10.7 cm solar flux has dropped to 80, and the daily smoothed sunspot number has fallen to 21, very low values. This means that long-haul multi-hop propagation over darkness, or partial-darkness zones, on frequencies above about 13 MHz will continue to be unreliable.

Czech Republic On Feb 1, 2011, all shortwave transmissions from the Lytomysl site in the Czech Republic will cease. Radio Prague will no longer be heard on shortwave, and it's output will only be accessible via the internet or satellite.

Germany Effective Feb 1, 2011, DW is listed for these new frequencies:

9545 Woofferton 0600-0800 German11645 Sines 1700-1800 Russian

Pohnpei A report by a Japanese listener in a newsgroup advised that the religious broadcaster "Cross Radio Pohnpei" is again being heard on shortwave, using 4755. and observed on Jan 29 from 0946 until signoff at 0934. Pohnpei is one of four States in the Pacific, part of the Federated States of Micronesia, administer by the USA. The broadcaster had commenced shortwave broadcasts some time ago but had not been heard until now. (Bob, are we to assume this is English ? Check also the times above in particular the reference to 0946 and a sign-off of 0934 - GVH )

Ukraine Radio Ukraine International has reduced its shortwave output to only one frequency - 7435 - in use 1500-1800 intended for Europe. All other services have been closed down.

United StatesEffective Feb 1, 2011, the Tennessee-based religious broadcaster, Leap of Faith, plans to use the following new schedule:

5080 2300-12005755 2300-12009480 1200-23009990 1200-2300

Power is 100 kW, site is "Lebanon", callsign is "TWW", target is Americas/Europe.

World Radio TV Handbook CD The CD from WRTH is mow available, which is a PDF Bargraph File current for the B10 season. It may be purchased direct from the WRTH at http://wrth.com/ for 9.99 British Pounds (about AUS/US$16).(Bob Padula, Melborne, Australia)

Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) Chairman Walter Isaacson released the following statement concerning coverage of recent events in the Middle East:

“As Chairman of the BBG, I have been regularly updated on developments across the Middle East by our Arabic-language broadcasters Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa. I am impressed by the results, and the commitment from the reporters, editors and managers at MBN to consistently uphold the highest journalistic standards, to compete with other outlets to get the story first, to get it accurately, and to provide the rich content the public deserves. They are playing a crucial role in reporting the developing story by providing live coverage from Cairo and other key cities, pre-empting regularly scheduled programming to cover breaking news, and incorporating video clips, photos and online comments from protesters as well as commentary from U.S. policymakers and analysts. Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa are important media players in the Middle East during these tumultuous days, contributing to international broadcasting in significant ways, utilizing all means of communications available, and with dedicated commitment to the mission.”

The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent federal agency, supervising all U.S. government-supported, civilian international broadcasting, whose mission is to promote freedom and democracy and to enhance understanding through multimedia communication of accurate, objective, and balanced news, information, and other programming about America and the world to audiences overseas. BBG broadcasts reach an audience of 165 million in 100 countries. BBG broadcasting organizations include the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa), Radio Free Asia, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Marti).(Leticia King)

Text of report by Qatari newspaper The Peninsula website on 30 January

Doha: The Al Jazeera Network have adapted to restricted communications in Egypt by adopting innovative social media techniques to extract news and views from the country.

While ordinary Egyptians have not had access to social networks like Twitter, Al Jazeera have been using Skype to record messages by members of the public. Al Jazeera has made the recordings available on Audioboo, promoting them through Facebook.

Al Jazeera’s web output has proved incredibly popular in the last 24 hours. The livestream from their English news channel has been viewed for 26 million minutes in the last 12 hours. The livestream has even been twice as popular as the website itself, putting more pressure on US cable platforms in particular to air the channel.

A spokesman said “Al Jazeera has been the most searched for term on the internet after Egypt itself, according to Alexa. The outside world was starved of first hand accounts when the internet went black in Egypt. Al Jazeera filled the void with live reports from across the country as the world flocked to our website for the latest developments on the ground.”(Source: The Peninsula website, Doha, in English 30 Jan 11 via BBC Monitoring)

Related story:

Al Jazeera kicked out of Egypt, Nilesat signal cutQatar-based satellite channel Al Jazeera was ordered by Egypt’s information ministry earlier today to shut down its operations in the country, and later in the day its signal to some parts of the Middle East was cut. The news channel, which says it can reach 220 million households in more than 100 countries, said in a message on its broadcast that Egypt’s satellite Nilesat had cut off its broadcasting signal. That effectively took Al Jazeera off the air in some parts of the Arab world, but other signals were still available.

“Dear viewers, Al Jazeera’s signal has been cut off on Nilesat,” it broadcast via a signal visible in Kuwait, and gave satellite frequencies on which the channel was still available.

Earlier, Egyptian authorities ordered it to stop operations in Egypt, though correspondents were still reporting news by telephone. “The Information Minister ordered … suspension of operations of Al Jazeera, cancelling of its licences and withdrawing accreditation to all its staff as of today,” a statement on Egypt’s official Mena news agency said.

Launched in Doha, Qatar, in 1996, Al Jazeera has more than 400 reporters in over 60 countries, according to its website.

(Source: Reuters)

In a statement, Al Jazeera said it strongly denounces and condemns the closure of its bureau in Cairo by the Egyptian government. “Al Jazeera has received widespread global acclaim for their [sic] coverage on the ground across the length and breadth of Egypt,” the statement said.

An Al Jazeera spokesman said that the company would continue its strong coverage regardless. “Al Jazeera sees this as an act designed to stifle and repress the freedom of reporting by the network and its journalists,” the statement said.

“In this time of deep turmoil and unrest in Egyptian society it is imperative that voices from all sides be heard; the closing of our bureau by the Egyptian government is aimed at censoring and silencing the voices of the Egyptian people.

“Al Jazeera assures its audiences in Egypt and across the world that it will continue its in-depth and comprehensive reporting on the events unfolding in Egypt. Al Jazeera journalists have brought unparallelled reporting from the ground from across Egypt in the face of great danger and extraordinary circumstances. Al Jazeera Network is appalled at this latest attack by the Egyptian regime to strike at its freedom to report independently on the unprecedented events in Egypt.”

Egypt cuts Internet, satellite TV and mobile phonesEgypt prepared for massive anti-government demonstrations today, communications to and from the outside world were severely restricted. All mobile phone services and live satellite television feeds were cut off early today. Now there are reports that the Internet has been cut off within Egypt. Only landline phones and fax remain in use.

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Al-Jazeera TV provides option “in case of jamming”

“In case of jamming to Al-Jazeera, please use the following values: FEC 3/4 - SR 27.500 Msps - 10949 VERTICAL,” Qatari Al-Jazeera TV reported at 1443 gmt on 28 January in an “urgent” screen caption, as the channel covered anti-government protests in Egypt.

Al-Jazeera is still streaming live reports in English from the Egyptian capital and Suez via its website. (AS)1600 UTC: A nationwide curfew has officially started in Egypt, but scenes in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez indicate that the crowds are ignoring it. (Al-Jazeera via AS)1640 UTC: A government building next to the state radio and TV headquarters in Cairo is on fire. The radio and TV building is heavily guarded, but there must be concern that the fire will spread. (Al-Jazeera via AS)1656 UTC: Al-Jazeera reporter says that crowds are now heading towards the radio and TV building. (Al-Jazeera via AS)(Radio Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Nice selection of what listeners are hearing on the shortwave bands. Thanks to new contributor François from France. Good to hear from you.

All times UTC // parallel frequency*sign-on / sign-off*

Angola4949.806, Radio Nacional, 2240-2250. Noted a male in Portuguese with program comments with very weak audio. Music at 2248. Signal was threshold.(Chuck Bolland, FL)

Ascension Island11665, Deutsche welle relay coming on at 2359:30 over top of NHK Radio Japan from Yamata, which had been in Japanese prior to top of the hour. DW in German with ID at 0000 and into news. NHK went off at 0000. 45444. (Very good) (Harold Sellres-BC)

Australia2368.5, Radio Symban, 1430 + 1511. Back on the air again after being absent for some weeks. As they had been off, I had hoped they were upgrading the transmitter, but did not notice any improvement today, very faintly heard music which could have been Greek. Better propagation on Jan 19, clearly Greek music at 1045 + 1336.(Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

Bolivia6134.804, Radio Santa Cruz, 1015-1030. Tune-in, noted a tune of traditional music. male commenst at 1022 in Spanish giving time check. RSC is alone on the freq which allows for a good signal this morning.(Chuck Bolland, FL)

5952.45, Emisora Pio XII, 1029-1045. Noted male in Spanish with comments. Although the carrier is good, the audio is very low in the noise. Splatter is a major problem also. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

Brazil4865.031, Radio Verdes Florestas, 1050-1110. Prior to 1000 signal was threshold,but after 1000 noted a female in Portuguese language comments between music. Although this frequency is usually activie with other Brazilian stations, Verdes Florestas is the only station heard here this morning and it was poor. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

Chad6165, RNT, 0427-0503. Did not hear any trace of them on the air, only Zambia (Radio 2) in the clear.(Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

Dominican Republic6025, Radio Amanecer (Santo Domingo), 2338-2349. Spanish. Slow religious-sounding vocal music. Occasional short announcements by a man and a woman. Good signal, improving over time, on a busy, noisy band. (Jim Evans, TN)

6030, Radio Oromiya (Addis Ababa), 0432-0445. Oromo. Talk by man with occasional quick announcement by second man and a few bars of Horn of Afica music. Poor to moderate signal with minor fading. (Jim Evans, TN)

Guam11850, Adventist World Radio (Agat), 2220-2229.* Javanese. Talk by man and woman. 2224 Talk by woman, Indonesia mentioned, with religious music in the background. All music after 2225. Gone at 2229. Poor signal with some fading and high side broadcast interference. (Jim Evans, TN)

Laos6130, Lao National Radio, 1415-1428. In English and Laotian, with what seemed to be their scheduled English language lesson, Functioning in Business. As it will be Lao New Year’s from April 14 to 16, it might be worth while to check on the LNR External Service on 7145, which has been off the air for some time now. Last New Year’s I had the pleasure of hearing their special programming for their English segment (1330-1400*). They explained about the various activities associated with Lao New Year’s and then played some indigenous songs, which were very nice. I hope they will reactivate and broadcast a similar special program this year too, but it is only a hope.(Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

Niger9704.99, LV du Sahel, 2100-2300.* Audible after Radio Ethiopia signs off. French talk. Variety of Afro-pop music and Euro-pop music. Local chants at 2253. Sign off with short flute interval signal and national anthem at 2258. (Brian Alexander, PA)

9705, La Voix du Sahel (Niamey) (presumed), 2156-2218. French. West African pop music. Announcement by woman in French at 2201, then pop music with talk-over by woman. Back to only music after a few minutes. Poor signal with fading, a few times down into the noise, but also occasionally up to moderate strength. (Jim Evans, TN)

North Korea9730 Voice of Korea, 0137. English to Asia, man with political talk mentioning “the red flag” several times, 0139 woman with ID. Poor. //11735, 13760, 15180 which are beamed towards the Americas were all good. (Harold Sellers-BC)

Palau13590, Radio Australia (Medorn), 2228-2232. English. Two men talking. ID by man at 2231 followed by news. Poor to moderate signal with occasional fading. (Jim Evans, TN)

Peru4774.95, Radio Tarma, 1125-1135. Another one of those signals that is barelyaudible with a male in Spanish comments. A second station is on 4775 kHz whichmay be the Brazilian, Radio Congonhas? (Chuck Bolland,FL)

Uganda4976, Radio Uganda (Kampala), 0426-0440. English. Pop music. Talk by man at 0427, sometimes joined by woman. Very weak signal with fading. Language was definitely English, but poor signal, noise, and somewhat muffled audio made content difficult to understand. It may have been a Sunday religious program. Also heard 1/25/2011, 0424-0434, with talk and pop music, and somewhat improved signal. (Jim Evans, TN) 4976 at 2210 UTC. SINPO 33322. (François from Capbreton, France).

Vatican State4005, Vatican Radio, 0450-0503. Hungarian. Woman talking with an occasional few bars of music. Background music at 0459 followed by interval signal. Announcements by man at 0500 at start of Polish language program. Talk by man and woman followed. Poor to moderate signal under a very strong, relentless RTTY signal. (Jim Evans, TN)

Zambia4965,047, Number One, Africa, 2220-23050. Noted a male in English with religious comments, music at 2246. This continues as the signal remains at a good level. At 2300 heard possible ID as, "... Radio Christian Voice". Broadcast continues. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

6165, ZNBC/Radio 2, at 0249. Was finally able to confirm the distinctive African Fish Eagle interval signal. Difficult due to strong interference // 5915.After RN (via Bonaire) signed off (0427*) found them in the clear (no hint of any Chad) with non-stop African Hi-Life music; IDs: “Radio 2”. In English with local time checks (UT +2) 0500 news, almost fair. Pleasant to find them with no interference and a nice music program.(Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

CQ NEWS (Press Release). Richard Moseson, W2VU, Editorial Director, sent out the following on January 18th: "WorldRadio Online Analysis Shows Ham Activity, Code Use, Both Up Since End of Code Testing -- An analysis by WorldRadio Online columnist Randall Noon, KC0CCR, suggests that levels of on-air ham activity and Morse code usage both have increased since the FCC dropped the requirement for Morse code testing in early 2007. Noon is the magazine's FISTS columnist. FISTS is an organization that promotes the use of Morse code among hams. Writing in the February issue of WorldRadio Online, Noon based his analysis on a combination of FCC licensing statistics and published results of ARRL Field Day activity from 2005 to 2009. He used Field Day data on the assumption that 'people who participate in Field Day are at least minimally active hams.'

Comparing statistics for Field Day activity with the total number of licensees, Noon determined that both the raw number and the percentage of licensed hams operating in Field Day had increased since 2007. In addition, he found that the number of Morse code (CW) contacts in Field Day had increased as well, hitting an all-time peak in 2009. This is significant, he says, 'because it is assumed that hams will use the same modes on Field Day that they do when operating at other times.'

Since the FCC stopped requiring code tests, Noon concluded, 'it appears that the use of CW has gained in absolute usage because the newer hams licensed since 2007 appear to be more actively engaged in the hobby, as evident by the higher levels of participation in Field Day.' Noon's complete analysis appears in the February 2011 issue of World-Radio Online, which will be posted on or about January 20 on www.worldradiomagazine.com. The magazine is available to readers at no charge.

WorldRadio Online is an advertiser-supported publication of CQ Communications, Inc., which also publishes CQ Amateur Radio, CQ VHF and Popular Communications magazines. Richard Fisher, KI6SN, is the Editor."(Ohio/Penn # 995)

Britain’s National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has reacted angrily to the announcement that hundreds of jobs and services are to be axed as a result of government cuts to BBC World Service funding.

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: “These cuts are a direct result of the Government slashing funding to an internationally respected and successful broadcaster. Journalists and other BBC employees are rightly angered at the destruction being caused to a broadcasting service of which the UK should be proud. The NUJ will join with other unions in defending jobs and quality broadcasting at the World Service. Our members have already explained, in a remarkably calm and reasoned way, why the cuts are such a severe threat to their service. World Service journalists have sought the support of senior parliamentarians in resisting these short sighted cuts and the NUJ will support their fight to defend jobs and quality services.”

Mr Dear added: “The diversity of staff and their presence in so many key locations around the world contributes to making the BBC World Service the leading voice in international broadcasting. At its best the World Service can challenge corruption, expose human rights abuses and promote democratic values. By cutting the service the government will cut British influence in the rest of the world, and cuts will also be deeply damaging for objective quality news services around the globe.”

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Radio Netherlands Worldwide has made the decision to close its Bonaire shortwave station in October 2012. RNW’s Head of Programme Distribution, Jan Willem Drexhage, said the closure was regrettable, but stressed that this was a financial decision, and doesn’t mean that RNW has imminent plans to drop shortwave.

“It is a beautiful station, with good equipment, and ideal for reaching North, Central and South America, but the number of hours we are broadcasting from the station has been steadily falling in recent years. We anticipate that by the end of 2012, the number of hours will be so small that it would be too costly to maintain the station. That doesn’t mean we will stop shortwave immediately, as we will lease time on other stations in the region, for example Montsinery in French Guiana and Sackville in Canada. So the closure of Bonaire doesn’t automatically mean that we are giving up shortwave.”(Radio Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

I believe that the new channel is primarily intended for relaying the Sarawak State network "Wai FM" from Kuching, which is non 24 hours, operating in the period 2200-1600 UTC, mainly dialects programming.

11665 is also used by NHK (Yamata) 2200-0100 broadcasting to same target area.

BBC World Service (BBCWS) gave details of its response to a cut to its Grant-in-Aid funding from the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office today.

BBCWS is to carry out a fundamental restructure in order to meet the 16 per cent savings target required by the Government’s Spending Review of 20 October last year. To ensure the 16 per cent target is achieved and other unavoidable cost increases are met, BBCWS is announcing cash savings of 20 per cent over the next three years. This amounts to an annual saving of £46m by April 2014, when Grant-in-Aid funding comes to an end as BBC World Service transfers to television licence fee funding, agreed as part of the domestic BBC’s licence fee settlement announced on the same day.

In the first year, starting in April 2011, the international broadcaster will be making savings of £19m on this year’s operating expenditure of £236.7m (2010/11).

The changes include:

*five full language service closures*the end of radio programmes in seven languages, focusing those services on online and new media content and distribution*a phased reduction from most short wave and medium wave distribution of remaining radio services.BBC Global News Director Peter Horrocks said: “This is a painful day for BBC World Service and the 180 million people around the world who rely on the BBC’s global news services every week. We are making cuts in services that we would rather not be making. But the scale of the cut in BBC World Service’s Grant-in-Aid funding is such that we couldn’t cope with this by efficiencies alone.

“What won’t change is the BBC’s aim to continue to be the world’s best known and most trusted provider of high quality impartial and editorially independent international news. We will continue to bring the BBC’s expertise, perspectives and content to the largest worldwide audience, which will reflect well on Britain and its people.”

BBCWS also plans spending reductions and efficiencies across the board, targeted in particular in support areas where there will be average cuts of 33 per cent. BBCWS also expects to generate additional savings from the new ways of working after the move to the BBC’s London headquarters at Broadcasting House in 2012, and also by the transfer of BBCWS to television licence fee funding in April 2014.

Under these proposals 480 posts are expected to close over the next year. By the time BBCWS moves in to the licence fee in 2014/15 it’s anticipated that the number of proposed closures will reach 650. Some of these closures may be offset by new posts being created during this period. It is expected that audiences will fall by more than 30 million from the current weekly audience of 180 million as a result of the changes this year.

The changes have been approved by the BBC Trust, the BBC Executive and, in relation to closure of services, The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, William Hague, as he is required to do under the terms of the BBC’s agreement with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The changes in detail are:

Full language service closures

There will be the complete closure of five language services – Albanian, Macedonian, Portuguese for Africa and Serbian languages; as well as the English for the Caribbean regional service.

End of radio programming

BBCWS will cease all radio programming – focusing instead, as appropriate, on online, mobile and television content and distribution – in the following languages: Azeri, Mandarin Chinese (note that Cantonese radio programming continues), Russian (save for some programmes which will be distributed online only), Spanish for Cuba, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Ukrainian.

Reductions in shortwave and mediumwave radio distribution

There will be a phased reduction in mediumwave and shortwave throughout the period.

English language shortwave and mediumwave broadcasts to Russia and the Former Soviet Union are planned to end in March 2011. The 648 mediumwave service covering Western Europe and south-east England will end in March 2011. Listeners in the UK can continue to listen on DAB, digital television and online. Those in Europe can continue to listen online or direct to home free-to-air satellite via Hotbird and UK Astra. By March 2014, shortwave broadcasts of the English service could be reduced to two hours per day in Africa and Asia.

BBCWS will cease all shortwave distribution of its radio content in March 2011 in: Hindi, Indonesian, Kyrgyz, Nepali, Swahili and the Great Lakes service (for Rwanda and Burundi). These radio services will continue to be available for audiences by other means of distribution such as FM radio (direct broadcasts and via partners); online; mobiles and other new media devices.

Shortwave broadcasts in remaining languages other than English are expected to end by March 2014 with the exception of a small number of “lifeline” services such as Burmese and Somali.

English language programmes

There will be a new schedule for World Service English language programming – a focus on four daily news titles (BBC Newshour, BBC World Today, BBC World Briefing, and BBC World Have Your Say); and a new morning programme for Africa. There will be a new daily edition of From Our Own Correspondent; and an expansion of the interactive World Have Your Say programme.There will be a reduction from seven to five daily pre-recorded “non-news” programmes on the English service. This includes the loss of one of the four weekly documentary strands. Some programmes will be shortened. Titles such as Politics UK, Europe Today, World Of Music, Something Understood, Letter From…, and Crossing Continents will all close. There will also be the loss of some correspondent posts.

Audience reduction

Audiences will fall by more than 30 million as a result of the changes announced on 26 January 2011. Investments in new services are planned in order to offset further net audience losses resulting from additional savings in the 2012-14 period.

Professional Services

There will be a substantial reduction in an already tight overhead budget. Teams in Finance, HR, Business Development, Strategy, Marketing and other administrative operations will face cuts averaging 33 per cent.

Job losses

Under these proposals 480 posts would be declared redundant; of these 26 posts are currently unfilled vacancies. BBCWS is proposing to open 21 new posts. Therefore the net impact of these proposed changes could result in up to 433 posts being closed this financial year against a total staff number of 2400.

By the time the BBCWS moves in to the licence fee in 2014/15 it’s anticipated that the number of proposed closures to reach up to 650. Some of these closures may be offset by new posts being created during this period.(Source: BBC World Service Press Office/Radio Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Hi amigos radioaficionados... listening via short wave and also by means of our streaming audio from www.radiohc.cu. I am your host Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK now ready to start the mid week edition of your favorite radio hobby program...

Here is item one... solar activity at low levels once again, and the daily solar flux figures moving down from a very weak peak of 88 units ... as anyone monitoring the HF bands will easily find out, the low solar activity continues to limit the chances of short wave propagation on frequencies above 20 megaHertz, even during the best times of the day at any given location.

Solar cycle 24 continues to show very weak activity .

Item two: You have questions and I do my best to answer them... Yes amigos, every day the e'mail brings in most interesting questions from listeners all around the world... Like for example the one sent by amiga Alice from Edinburgh , Scotland.

Alice is a newcomer to short wave listening who started to play with her brother's new digital portable radio... discovering that she could pick up stations from all over Europe, Africa and Asia, but very few stations from the Americas... Alice asks in her e'mail why it is not possible for her in Scotland to pick up stations from other countries in the America besides Cuba, Brazil and Colombia and Venezuela.

Well amiga Alice, first of all, let me tell you that at this moment when you pick up Radio Nacional of Venezuela's Canal Internacional , you are actually listening to a short wave transmission originating in Venezuela, but that is been broadcast from Cuba, by means of a relay station agreement between the two countries.

Venezuela is now in the process of installing its first international broadcasting transmitting station , from where it will be originating programs also in the near future. Relaying international programs is a well established practice, that nowadays makes use of both satellite and submarine fiber optic cables to send the signals from the studios of the originating station to the remote transmitter site located in another country.

The relay transmissions amiga Alice, will reach the target audience with much better signals due to the proximity of the remote transmitters site... For example, Radio China International sends its signals via satellite to Cuba, where Radio Cuba transmitters relay them to North and South America as well as to the Caribbean...

Now I am sure that you will understand more about relay stations, and to answer the other part of your question, I will be back in a few seconds after a short break for station ID. I am your host Arnie Coro in sunny Havana, Cuba...

......................

This is Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is Dxers Unlimited, and yes amigos, we do QSL, we do send QSL cards to listeners that report our programs, and this is done absolutely free of charge... Now part two of the answer to amiga Alice of Edingburgh, Scotland in the UK...

Besides Radio Havana Cuba, and Radio Nacional of Venezuela , using a rather simple short wave receiving antenna, you may be able also to pick up several stations from Brazil, as well as Argentina and Chile. Other South American countries are also on the air , especially on the 60 and 49 meters bands, but the stations are using low power and simple low cost antenna systems because they are intended to provide local or regional coverage.

When HF bands propagation conditions are good, you may pick up several of those low power stations from Peru, Bolivia , Ecuador , Colombia and Mexico... reception of those low power short wave broadcasts , mainly on the 60 and 49 meters band, but also at times on 31 meters this will usually take place very late in the evening your local time.

Item three: Answering another question sent by listener Mark from Toronto, Canada... Mark found a radio related device that is marked outside as a PRESELECTOR, and he Asks Arnie in his e-mail, if that piece of equipment is of any useful value.

Mark tells me that the preselector has a band switch and a dial, just like a short wave radio, but when he lifted the hinged top lid, he found that there are only two vacuum tubes inside, one is a rectifier, Mark also tells me, d the other one is a 7 pin miniature tube stamped on the glass with the markings 6AK5 , dash 5654 ...

Well amigo Mark, let me tell you that the PRESELECTOR that you now own, after the buy at the yard sale, is a piece of radio equipment that was popular in the early days of the radio hobby, when low cost receivers didn't had enough radio frequency amplification.

Adding the preselector between the antenna and the receiver, boosted the reception more or less significantly... the increase in signal strength was much more noticeable above 15 megaHertz , so radio amateurs on a tight budget will add a preselector to their receivers when they wanted to improve the performance on the 15 and 10 meter bands.

For all practical purposes, your well preserved preselector will not improve the performance of a modern table top receiver, but it could boost the reception and also clean the presence of image signals when connected between the antenna and a low cost portable solid state receiver ...

Now item four of the mid week edition of Dxers Unlimited amigos !

Amateur radio enthusiasts here in Cuba will be participating in a nationwide contest to be held on the 27th and 28th of this month of January to pay homage to Cuban national hero Jose Martí, whose 158 birthday will be celebrated on the 28th.

The contest will take place on the 160, 80 and 40 meter bands, and stations of the three categories of licenses are going to participate. This national contests are used also as a practice drill for emergency communications , as a large number of portable stations are deployed at historical sites. Those portable stations provide the contest participants with extra points, so everyone tries to work them, both onSSB voice and on CW, as this contest encourages the use of both voice and Morse code radiotelegraphy communications.

The winners in each of the categories will receive diplomas and also several prizes that will be awarded by the Cuban Federation of Radio Amateurs...........................

Amigos your are listening to the mid week edition of Dxers Unlimited, that is on the air just after the half hour news segment of our daily programs. Our weekend edition is on the air Sundays and Mondays UTC days, just after the top of the hour newscast. Here is now more radio hobby related information coming to you from Radio Havana Cuba...

For both short wave listeners and amateur radio operators the installation of an adequate antenna for obtaining best results within the frequency range from 3.5 to 29.7 megaHertz is quite a challenge to say the least. City dwelllers, and especially those who live in apartment building face a great challenge when trying to listen or to operate, in the case of amateur radio hobby enthusiasts, because of the severe restrictions regarding the installation of external antennas.

High rise apartment buildings are an ideal location for VHF, UHF and Microwave operation if you happen to be living at one of the top floors, but are quite useless for that purpose if your apartment is located close to the ground requiring the installation of a very long length of transmission line.

Even the best coaxial cables available have very high losses on the frequencies above 50 megaHertz !

But, despite all those difficulties, I very often come across a ham radio operator that with a lot of ingenuity manages to operate, for example, on the 20, 17 and 15 meters bands, using different types of antennas.

Do notice that I don't even mention the 12 and 10 meters HF bands because the size of antennas for those bands is small enough to make them fit across a balcony ... But 20 , 17 and 15 meters are certainly the most popular DX bands when propagation conditions are let's say, normal or slightly above normal, and that is why people living in housing facilities with severe restrictions as regards to the installation of external antennas, try , in the first place to put up an antenna system that can be tuned to 20, 17 and 15 meters.

One of the regular Dxers Unlimited's listeners , who is also an avid ham radio operator asked about what could be done to install an antenna for the 20, 17 and 15 meters band that could fit into his apartment's balcony that measured from one end to the other roughly 5 meters or about sixteen and a half feet. He was already succesfully operating on the 6 meters band with a half wave dipole, and also on 2 meters using a homebrew DK7ZB 5 element Yagi ... on the 70 centimeters band his DK7ZBYagi also allowed him to access a repeater located very far away.

His 10 meters half wave dipole brought some local contacts, and also some DX when the band is open, but as everyone now is fully aware, the 10 meter band openings via the F2 layer are very rare indeed due to the lack of solar activity.

So, here is what I advised him to do...

Number one: Start learning about magnetic loop antennas, in order to be able to make one in the near future... The magnetic loop will require the use of expensive copper tubing , buying also expensive variable capacitors and finding someone capable of doing a very good soldering using silver solder to complete the antenna. So I told amigo Bob to begin learning about the magnetic loop as it may be a very good nearfuture option, but in the meantime, he could build a compact short dipole antenna that will make possible to operate on the 20, 17 and 15 meters bands with rather good efficiency, and also on the 30 meters band with somewhat reduced performance.

The antenna I suggested fits perfectly into a slightly less than 15 feet horizontal space, and when fed via homebrew one to one balun and using a wide range antenna tuner has proven to provide excellent performance. One good advantage of this antenna is that it can be installed in a couple of minutes when you want to operate or listen to the radio, and likewise it can be taken down and placed in storage at a corner of the balcony !!! The good efficiency of this antenna design despite itsshort length, is due to the use of two carefully built end loading spiders, that act as an effective capacitive load.

The two loading spiders are built using eight wires that are carefully soldered to a circle made of 6 millimeters or about a quarter of an inch copper tubing. Each leg of the antenna is just two and a quarter meters long and they end up connecting to the end loading spiders ... The center insulator supports a one to one balun transformer, and the antenna is fed with a short length of RG213 or RG8X coaxial cable that connects it to the antenna tuner.

Please notice that this antenna uses no loading coils, although it you want to experiment , maybe it would be interesting to insert midway at each leg a small loading coil. But so far, all our experiments with this antenna have proven that it will work quite well with a simple antenna tuner, making possible to operate on the 20, 17 and 15 meters bands, as well as on the 12, 10 and 6 meters band too. The fact that the antenna is located inside a balcony, places some limitations as regards to both the overall coverage and also limits its use to power levels not to exceed 25 watts.

But let me add that running 25 Watts to this antenna on 20 meters even under quite normal band conditions it is possible to work DX stations especially when using CW and digital keyboard to keyboard modes. If you want to learn more about this compact antenna system, especially designed for apartment dwellers, just drop me an e'mail to inforhc at enet dot cu, again inforhc at enet dot cu.

And now as always at the end of the show, here is Arnie Coro's Dxers Unlimited 's HF propagation update and forecast. Do not expect sporadic E openings until about 8 weeks or even more from now, solar activity continues to be low, and the daytime maximum useable frequencies are correspondingly low too... The night time maximum useable frequency curve continues to exhibit its usual very sharp drop just after sunset, typical of the northern hemisphere winter season.

Don't forget to send your signal reports and comments about this and other RHC programs to inforhc at enet dot cu ...(Arnie Coro/Radio Havana Cuba)

Last week, here in Wavescan, we presented the first part in our two part sequence on the story of Radio Australia and its off-shore relays, and that was during the earlier eras. In our program today, we present the story of the off-shore relay facilities in use by Radio Australia in more recent time, and these relay facilities are specific attempts by Radio Australia to increase its reliable coverage into the many countries of Asia, and beyond.We go back to the summer season of 1982/1983 and that was the time of a series of disastrous and lengthy bushfires in the states of eastern Australia and the state of South Australia. These wide spread fires resulted in a combined loss of $7 billion.In fact, during this same fire season, a mobile reporter for the mediumwave station 5DN in Adelaide was on duty, reporting live from one of the fire fronts. It so happened that this journalist, Murray Nicoll, was in the locality of his own home in the nearby Mt Lofty Ranges, and he gave a live description over the air of the fires destroying his own home.He declared: At the moment, I am watching my house burn down. I am sitting out on the roadway in front of my own house, where I have lived for the past 13 or 14 years, and it is going down in front of me. The flames are in the roof and everything around the house is black. There are fires burning all around me. The front section of the roof has fallen in, my water tanks are useless, and there is nothing I can do about it.For a few days around early October 1982, Radio Australia took out a series of 30 minute relays via BBC shortwave facilities located in England and beyond in order to inform the world of the seriousness of these disastrous and destructive fires in several areas of Australia. These offshore, temporary relay transmissions were broadcast in England on high powered mediumwave, and also on half a dozen shortwave channels. At least one of these shortwave relays in England came from a 250 kW transmitter located at Woofferton and this was heard on 21590 kHz.In addition, BBC shortwave transmitters located on the islands of Cyprus, Masirah & Ascension also carried this same programming relay regarding the bushfires in Australia. Radio Australia verified the relay of their programming from all of these different locations with their own QSL cards.Beginning in the year 2001, Radio Australia added several new shortwave relay locations for their regular programming in order to present an improved signal into several countries of Asia. These relay stations were BBC Singapore, VOA Tinian, IBB Saipan & RTI Taiwan. Interestingly, according to contemporary reports, the relay broadcasts from the shortwave station located on Saipan Island were on the air for only one day, January 29, 2001. Next day, this shortwave programming was transferred to other relay sites. The relay service via Tinian was soon afterwards transferred to Al Dhabbaya in the United Arab Emirates, due to maintenance work at the station on Tinian.During the same era, half a dozen mediumwave and shortwave transmitter locations on the island of Taiwan also carried program relays on behalf of Radio Australia. These relays via Taiwan are still on the air to this day, and the locations are listed as Tainan, Tanshui & Paochung.The program feed for the transfer of this radio programming beginning in the year 2001 was provided by WRN, the World Radio Network in England, and at that stage, the Miami shortwave station WRMI was also re-broadcasting the WRN satellite radio programming, including the relay from Radio Australia. A QSL card in our Indianapolis collection dated April 23, 2001, verifies the relay of Radio Australia via WRMI.Just last year, another offshore relay station was added to the overseas network in use by Radio Australia. This new facility is shortwave station T8WH, located on the island of Palau, way out east of the Philippines. Half a dozen shortwave channels are in use throughout the broadcast day, and the programming is beamed to China, Burma & Indonesia.It will be remembered that station T8WH was established on Palau by High Adventure Ministries under the callsign KHBN. When Palau became fully independent, the callsign was changed to T8BZ, and after the station was sold to World Harvest Radio of South Bend in Indiana, the callsign was changed to T8WH.It should also be remembered that Radio Australia fosters the development of FM relay stations throughout the Pacific Islands. They are operating two digital shortwave transmitters in the DRM mode at Brandon, south of Townsville in Queensland, at about 8 kW. The purpose of these two transmitters is to relay their programming to several different islands throughout the Pacific where the signal is received and re-broadcast on local FM.It is known that a dozen or more of these local FM relay stations have been established on islands throughout the Pacific and each is receiving the programming via the DRM transmitters located on the north east coast of Australia.Back in 2005, Radio Australia programming was also heard via the DRM digital mode with 35 kW on a shortwave channel at Rampisham in England.As our final item regarding the offshore relay of Radio Australia programming, we report an interesting item from Jose Jacob VU2JOS at Hyderabad in India. He reported hearing Radio Australia on relay via a 100 kW shortwave transmitter located at Novosibirsk in Siberia. The frequency was 7460 kHz and the date was December 4, 2003. As he states, this was obviously a switching mistake somewhere along the line.(AWR Wavescan/ NWS # 100 via Adrian Peterson)

A reduction in funding for 2011 has forced the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), to cut some of its TV and radio programmes and lay off employees. Aye Chan Naing, the executive director of the DVB, told The Irrawaddy that the exile news agency’s TV entertainment programme and its daily morning radio programme will be cancelled in late February. It will also have to lay out some employees, he added.

DVB was founded in 1992 and has been funded by several international donors, particularly the Norwegian government. Aye Chan Naing said the DVB had lost 15 percent of its annual budget—down from 23 million Norwegian Krone (US $4 million) to about 20 million Krone. The DVB, however, will keep running its evening radio broadcast in Burmese. its 24-hour TV broadcast and its website, said Aye Chan Naing.(Radio Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Solar activity was at very low levels from 17 - 20 January. Region 1147 (N24, L=342, class/area Cso/170 on 20 January) was responsible for the majority of the activity during this period producing numerous B-class events. Region 1149 (N18, L=344, class/area Dsi/170 on 22 January) emerged late on 20 January and immediately started producing B-class events. Activity increased to low levels during 20 - 22 January as Region 1149 grew into a beta-gamma magnetic classification. Eight C-class flares were observed during this period with a majority coming from Region 1149. Region 1149 also produced the largest flare of the period which was a C3/Sf at 0416 UTC on 21 January. Activity decreased to very low levels on 23 January as both regions became quiet and stable.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was normal to moderate levels throughout the period.

Geomagnetic field activity ranged from predominantly quiet levels at lower latitudes to a few periods at minor storm levels at high atitudes. Mostly quiet periods predominate from 17 - 18 January. On 19 January, a recurrent coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS) moved into a geoeffective position. Observations from the ACE spacecraft indicated an increase in solar wind velocities from around 400km/s - 530km/s with the Bz component of the interplanetarymagnetic field generally varying between +/- 6 nT. Two periods at minor storm levels were observed at high latitudes on 19/0900-1500 UTC in response to the CH HSS. Predominantly quiet levels were observed for the rest of the summary period as the effects of the CHHSS waned.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity26 January - 21 February 2011

Solar activity is expected to be at very low to low levels during 26 - 30 January. Very low levels are expected for the remainder of the period.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at normal levels during 26 January - 04 February. Moderate to high levels are expected from 04 - 09 February. A return to normal to moderate levels is expected for the remainder of the period.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at predominantly quiet levels from 26 January - 02 February. Field activity is expected to increase to quiet to unsettled levels during 02 - 05 February due to a recurrent CH HSS. Predominantly quiet levels is expected to prevail for the remainder of the period.

Radio Prague, which makes its final shortwave transmissions on 31 January, will continue to produce its 30-minute programmes in six languages. However the Head of Radio Prague, Miroslav Krupicka, has told the station’s English programme Mailbox that “We wanted to make the programme cheap and we’ll play music – Czech music on Sundays.”

A listener from the US enquired about the possibility of utilizing the longwave transmitter at Topolna [on 270 kHz] covering a large part of Europe for Radio Prague’s foreign language programmes for part of the day. However, Mr Krupicka said that was not an option: “It’s quite tough because currently, the longwave is allocated to domestic broadcasts. But overall, longwave is being considered for closure as well, for budgetary reasons, for financial reasons, because to maintain longwave and well as shortwave is quite expensive and Czech Radio cannot afford that. So probably the days of longwave broadcasting are numbered within Czech Radio as well. So there is no long term prospect for Radio Prague being on longwave.”

The complete transcript and audio of the programme is available on Radio Prague’s website.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation-ZNBC has assured Kapiri Mposhi residents, in the Central Province that work is on going to restore Radio 1 and 2 services.Radio 1 and 2 channels have been off air since January 2 following lightening that struck off and destroyed Zamtel Equipment that carries the ZNBC Radio Signal.

Public Relations Officer Masuzyo Ndhlovu says following the impact of damage, there is a disruption of ZNBC 1 and 2 FM (Frequency Modulation) services in Kampiri Mposhi and Surrounding areas.

Public Relations Officer Masuzyo Ndhlovu however says frantic efforts are being made by the technical team to ensure service is restored to normal within shortest possible time.

The State We're InJonathan Groubert and his team look at current events from an unexpected perspective.

This week: Us and Them

Anthony Shaffer was an American spy whose last mission was in Afghanistan. The military didn’t want him to go public with his story of institutional bloat and incompetence, but he did, in a heavily censored book.

Abdul Zaeef was one of the founders of the Taliban. He was imprisoned in Guantanamo for four years, yet still believes in its cause.

The 2010 World Cup, hosted by an African country for the first time, is widely seen as a major achievement by South Africa. But what did it bring to the country and to the rest of the continent? And who profited the most?

A few months after the event, it’s time for a cautious preliminary assessment, with three football watchers.

First airing: Monday 18:00 UTC

South Asia WiredProgram in which South Asians get to talk to each other, hosted by Dheera Sujan.

This week:

A new report says minorities in Sri Lanka are not treated equally. Tamils and Muslims face harsh living conditions, economic marginalisation and language discrimination.

(There'll be a new edition of the programme on Thursday 27 January)First airing: Thursday 15:14 UTC

Commonwealth StoryA selection of winning stories chosen from the large number of entries for the 2010 Commonwealth Short Story Competition.

This week: Vantage Point - by Sandrina Abeywardene from Sri Lanka. Kindness and violence on the streets of Colombo.

First airing: Tuesday 00:55 UTC

Hear the WordListen to the world’s musical heartbeat on RNW. A brand new world music series hosted by Dheera Sujan.

The multicultural society of many a Western country is reflected in music by Turkish-Dutch performer Tarhana and Tunisian-Belgian Ghalia Benali. Other musicians this week include Natasha Mirkovic from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Matthias Loibner from Austria and Dutch-Cape Verdian Dina Medina. The programme is presented by Dheera Sujan.

First airing: Monday 03:00 UTC

Live at the ConcertbouwA classical concert series featuring the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and others.

Today's music ranges from the 19th century to the very present. From Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto to Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, and up to the 2009 world première of Van Onna's Antarctica. The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Jakov Kreizberg, and the concert is hosted by Hans Haffmans.

A couple of months ago, Radio Australia announced that they have been granted a shortwave license by the authorities in Singapore, and their programming to some countries in Asia is now on the air from a shortwave station at this new location. The silent shortwave facility operated previously by Radio Singapore International at Kranji has apparently been re-activated for this purpose.

This event spawned a spate of research on our part in an endeavor to find out what other overseas radio stations have carried the programming from Radio Australia, and the information is really quite amazing. In fact, literally hundreds of radio stations all around the world have re-broadcast the programming from Radio Australia to their own audiences at some time or another.Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Radio Australia copied a lot of their programming, in both English as well as in other languages, onto large transcription discs, and these discs were sent to a multitude of stations on all continents except South America. In fact, in some years, more than 6,000 of these transcription discs were sent to radio stations in overseas countries for local and international re-broadcast.As an example, here are a few of the many stations that re-broadcast the programming from Radio Australia in this way:-Asia India AIR Programs of Australian interestPhilippines DZFM Royal Visit to AustraliaPacific Fiji FBS Australian MagazineSamoa 2AP Pacific InterestNorth America Canada CBC French language programmingUSA MW Networks Australian MagazineAfrica Sierra Leone SLBS Programs of African interestNigeria NBC Programs of African interestEurope Germany RBI Programs of German interest

In addition to the transcription discs, Radio Australia has been relayed live off air shortwave by just as many stations in just as many countries, beginning way back at the time of their inauguration on December 20 in the year 1939. In fact, the opening broadcasts of Radio Australia, or Australia Calling as it was known at the time, were relayed live by the BBC London on local radio as well as in their Overseas Service on shortwave.Other stations that also carried this live off-air relay were, for example:-NZBS in New ZealandZJV & VPD2 on mediumwave & shortwave in FijiSeveral mediumwave stations in the United StatesIt should also be remembered that every mediumwave radio station in Australia relayed the Radio Australia opening speech by the Prime Minister, Mr Robert Menzies.The first mediumwave station in the United States that was granted approval to carry a regular off air relay from the programming of Radio Australia was KFRO, located at Longview in Texas. At the time, this was just a small station running 250 watts on 1370 kHz. However, soon afterwards, and quite quickly, many other mediumwave stations and networks throughout the United States were granted similar approval to rebroadcast the off air programming from Radio Australia.On subsequent occasions, numerous stations around the world have carried a live off air relay from Radio Australia, and a few examples would be:-Asia China XGOY China Day ProgramsHong Kong RTHK Regular news bulletinsPacific Cook Islands ZK1 News bulletins & commentariesPacific Islands AFRS Stations Programming in English & JapaneseAfrica & ME Palestine ZJM Jerusalem News bulletinsSouth Africa SABC Cricket & tennis commentariesAmericas West Indies WIBS Cricket & tennis commentaries USA Major networks News bulletins & commentaries It should also be mentioned that Australian stations established in other countries have also relayed many programs from Radio Australia on a regular basis, and we could list some of these stations as:-Christmas Island VLU2Cocos Island VKWJapan Australian stations on mediumwave & shortwaveMalaysia Radio ButterworthVietnam Australian local stationsPacific Islands Many Australian mobile stations with callsigns in the 9A seriesPalestine Australian ABC station in the Gaza Strip, ABC Kilo 89That’s as far as we can go on this occasion, but next week here in Wavescan, we will present additional information regarding the numerous off-shore relay stations that have carried a relay of shortwave programming from Radio Australia.(AWR Wavescan/NWS # 99 via Adrian Peterson)